Open letter to Fred Allen

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I am very disappointed to know that you are working with the very people in our community and state that have categorically tried to take property, rights, and other freedoms from blacks and other minority groups, particularly those whose voices are often silenced or ignored because of race/ethnicity, economic disparities, educational disparities and other disparities. According to your financial records posted on the Secretary of State's website, your backers are, amongst others, many Northwest Arkansas contributors who have not been very friendly to the rights of workers, to the voice and rights of blacks and other minorities, and who have made it clear that they will do whatever it takes to unseat Sen. Joyce Elliott. I noticed that Stephens family members and Stephens Inc. have backed your campaign. Dickson Flake, your financial treasurer, is on the LR Technology Board that seeks to take homes and property from citizens, predominately black Little Rock citizens, who are mid- to low-income, "for the greater good of our city." Please reconsider your history, your foundations, and abandon this ship. We have come too far to go backwards. Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., my father and other great civil/human rights leaders did not work in vain so that we would undermine their labors of love and let money and power overcome our deep faith and commitment to human rights over wealthy rights, justice for all instead of justice for some, and walking together united rather than causing a fall through division.

Dr. Anika T. Whitfield

Little Rock

Missed opportunity

I was very disappointed by your cover of April 18, showing Bobby Petrino with his pants down. You really ought to know better — Bobby should have been wearing boxers with little Razorbacks and hearts on them. What a missed opportunity to have made a good point perfect. Pig Soooooiiiiieee.

Gregory Ferguson

Little Rock

No war with Iran

The prospect of yet another war, this time with Iran, is frightening and unacceptable; so is the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. That's why I was glad to see the U.S. take part in diplomatic talks with Iran on April 13 and 14.
With continued talks scheduled in May, our members of Congress must support diplomacy with Iran, not pass new legislation that could sabotage it. I'm sure my representative, Mike Ross, will cosponsor H.R. 4173, which calls for robust, sustained and comprehensive diplomacy with Iran. And I'm sure my senators, Mark Pryor and John Boozman, will strongly oppose S.Res. 380, which pressures the administration to abandon diplomacy and push toward war.
We the people do not want more war — the only ones who profit are corporations. We lose our loved ones, our taxpayer dollars, and our honor, if we blindly follow the battle cry to yet another unnecessary war.

Charlotte Wales

Monticello

From the web

In response to "Portable Kitchen Grills: built for the long smoke":

I can smoke a whole chicken with 25 charcoal briquettes on my PK. I light them in one of those charcoal towers, and I have found for some reason Arkansas Times paper wadded up to start the charcoal tower works better than the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The Democrat-Gazette leaves a big lump of sheet ashes instead of the Arkansas Times, which just dissolves and falls through the grating.
Since chicken (a big roasting hen) only takes a couple hours to smoke I use green wild cherry for smoking. Black Cherry/Wild Cherry/Choke Cherry, depending on what name it goes by in your locale, has a sweet flavor but can be overwhelming if you tried to do a 6 or 8 hour butt or ham.
All around Arkansas we have cherry as a scrub volunteer just ready for snatching. The fact that it is used green takes no planning ahead. Hickory needs drying and also needs to come from a real log as opposed to cherry sticks.
Now my one concern: With the price of scrap metals I have a fear of losing my favorite cooker to a recycling thief. My remote cabin has an aluminum canoe and a PK grill that I can't really lock up since the canoe is too large to drag inside and the PK does have a smoked meat odor that would be a problem.
I am hoping the local yahoos don't become aware that the PK is a big thick hunk of cast aluminum.

Citizen1

I love mine and it has to be one of the '60's models! The in-laws let us have it in '77 when we set up house. Kraftco sells the new interior grates so mine was updated a couple of years ago. I don't think there is anything that I have not cooked on mine. I remember friends of mine who actively went out looking at garage sales for one of these jewels!

Goof

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